There is another threat about Paladin Tanks on the forum but it's not that good for understanding the basics from new players that choose to play as a Paladin Tank.

First of all I would like to start with this: Tanking is more of and Art rather than science so you could realy improvise in the way you feel it will be much better for your playstyle rather than something that most of the Pally Tanks use. Also this a PvE Oriented Guide!

For Alliance all three races have their upsides. As for Hordes your realy dont have a choice since Blood Elfs are the only race than can be a Paladin.

Dwarfs have 5 Expertise when they use Maces while humans have only 3 with Swords and Maces also Dwarfs have Stoneform which is quite usefull when they are bleed effects also a good CD when there is a Huge Physical Spike DMG. Humans on the other hand have Every Man For Himself which proves to be usefull when you need to remove some kind of Fear/Stun effect to safe some of your healers and its alot better to use this rather than Divine Shield cause DS cleares all your threat.

Draenei have only a Self Heal that helps during leveling and when your farming. The 1 % Hit Raid Wide is usefull too but most of the times there are more than 1 Draenei in the raid.

Blood Elves have a way to interupt casters which due to Arcane Torrent and the mana returning helps reduce the downtime while you are leveling or farming.

The proffestion bosnuses for both JC and Ench can come usefull too to skip those hard to farm leveling recipes. Also Humans can finish their rep farms 10 % Faster and Dwarfes can track Treasure Chests. The race chosing is crealy all about the looks so choose whatever you like the most.

I've got 540 defense skill so I should be uncrittable, but some mobs in instances or outdoors are still critting me. What's going on with that?

Most of the Outdoor mobs and some instance mobs haves buffs that increase their crit chance further but thats not something your should worry about bacause there isn't a known boss that have higher than 5.6% crit chance which is actualy why the cap is 540.

For other questions feel free to PM me or ask here I will gladly reply to them.

Str is the Main Threat stat for Pallys since it Gives you more SP, BV and AP which are the stats that make all your abilities stronger since most of your spells scale from AP and SP (HotR Scales only from AP) and ShR scales directly with your BV. Also BV gives your a small amount of DR since most of the time you will be Blocking attacks.

Stamina

Each point of Stamina increases your HP Pool by 10. Also Sacred Duty and Combat Ratings increase your Stamina by 8 % and 6 % respectively and a Total of 14.48 %. Stam is also the stat you should look for cause on WoTLK Melee Attacks are not that big of an Issue for tanks.

Int is quite unneeded for Tank but it haves it usefullnes but should only come from Buffs and nothing more. The increasement in your mana pool means more mana from Replenishment effects and also more mana from Sanctuary. It also gives you spell crits but the only thing that benefits from Spell Crit are your Heals and your Exorcism and neither of them are included in your rotations.

Most of the mobs have a 5 % Crit Chance against a level 80 player with 400 Defense Skill(which is the base skill for all classes) and you need to avoid that. Every 1 level difference give 0.2 % Increased Crit Chance and for a level 83 (Which is the level of all bosses) makes it a total 5.6 % Crit Chance to avoid so that means 5.6 * 25 = 140 Defense Skill (689 defense rating) and a total of 540 Defense Skill needed to avoid crits on a Boss. For Heroics the highest level boss in there is 82 and you need 535 Def Rate(664 defense rating) for there to be Crit Caped.

Dodge Rating
- 45.25 rating = 1% chance to dodge.
- Dodging an attack means that you wount take any DMG from it.
- Dodge suffers from diminishing returns meaning that the more Dodge you have the more rating it will require for 1 %. There isn't an exact known graphs about them.

After a successful parry, the defender's "swing timer" is reduced by 40% of your weapon speed (or even reset), unless this would result in a reduction to less than 20% of your swing time remaining. This results in an average of .24 extra swings per parry; thus parry favors slower, higher damage weapons.

Block Rating
- 16.29 block rating = +1% chance to block.
- This does not suffer from diminishing returns.
- Block is far "cheaper" than dodge or parry or even defense per point of avoidance; however, blocking only absorbs an amount of damage equal to your block value.

Hit Rating
- 32.79 hit rating = +1% chance to hit with melee or ranged attacks (-1% chance to miss).
- For our purposes, this applies to melee swings (white damage), Avenger's Shield, Hammer of the Righteous, Shield of Righteousness, Hammer of Wrath, and Judgements.
Against a raid boss, melee and ranged attacks have a base 8% chance to miss (this is changed from 9% in TBC), so 263 hit rating is required to eliminate all melee misses if there are no other bonuses to hit.
- Draenei have a racial aura that gives +1% to hit. This reduces the requirement for melee hit-capping to 230 hit rating if you're a draenei or have one in your group. (This is group-only buff, not a raidwide buff.)

It is not a must to be Hit Caped as a Tank, Hit should only be considered if your need it for specific Fights, or if your lacking threat. Also have in mind that Spell Hit tables scale differently. The only abilities that require spell hit are our Taunts and Exorcism.

The effective exepertise cap is 26 for Dodges but that realy doesnt concern you that much. The thing that concerns you is the Parry since you are aways attacking from the front and thus making your attacks to parry. When a boss parries an attack his Swing Timer gets reduced by 40% (as mentioned above) thus making the boss hit you harder. Most of the bosses have between 11% and 15 % which means that you need something like 56 Expertise and that ammount is nearly impossible to get. My advice is to gear for Avoidance and take as much Expertise as you can get your hands on but dont aim straighly for that stat.

Block Value

Although this is not a Rating I would like to mention that this is a Strong Mitingation stats because every point of BV causes your blocks to avoid another extra point of DMG also BV increases the DMG of your ShR and thus increasing your Threat.

There are 56 Talent points that are a must for you to be an effective tank and 3 that are just to get to the higher tiers. Those 3 of them must be putted on talents in the first 5 tiers.

The Core Build - this includes all the core talents and the 3 needed points to get down to the other tiers are puted in Divine Sacrifice and Divine Guardian although Divine Sacrifice is better uses with Divine Shield on bacuase if you plan to use it without it you most likely die. But the real power here is in Divine Guardian because it improves your SS alot. Those 3 Point may be puted simply where you want it doesnt have that much of Impact but I highly recomend this one as a Core because of its Utility.

For the Rest 12 Talent Points:

Retribution

0/53/18 This is the most common build that most of the pallys use however for Molten WoW I think it will be better to get those 2 Point in Vindication and move them to Imp BoM since Vindication proc rates here suck and its hard to maintain high Uptime of the Debuff.

Some ppl also like to get points in Conviction for further Threat Increasement.An example build for that would be this one. Here you loose most of your Mobility due to droping Persuit of Justice and alot of AoE Threat due to Seal of Command, also you loose some Utility due to droping Vindication (Imp BoM as mentioned above).

Holy

Holy offers only high Utility but at the cost of a reduced threat. A Great example for Holy as a way to put your is given by Lazeil from Paragon. This spec and Glyph setup is used mainly to on the 25 man Lich King where there is alot of tank changing and threat is not an issue there an there he uses most of his abilities to reduce the Raid DMG also the Tank DMG (Imp LoH, AM and DiSac). Note that he puted 5/5 Divinity and the reason for this is mainly because 25 Man Lich King is very heal intensive and this helps healers to deal easily with it. The 1 Point in HoJ is puted because it makes HoJ available for every Valkirye spawn. In all the rest points in Holy are preferably to be chosen when there is alot of Spike DMG on the Encounter thus making this choice rather Situational.

Credits goes to @theckhd and @Dorvan from maintankadin forums mostly for the Holy Part since I have never played Holy/Prot

NOTE: Have in mind that at the moment on Molten WoW Vindication and Judgements of the Just aren't working on NPCs and only on Players so its advisable to drop the points from them and put them somewhere else.

Justification:

In all Lazeil from Paragon gives a great example about that you can modify your talents the way your role on a given Encounter requires as you can see he droped some of the Core talents just to improve the group's survivability at the cost of threat and since LK 25 Man Hard Mode doesnt require that much of Threat this spec has great Utility there. So the conclusion is to put your talents where ever you want them and the Core Build is something like a point of starting for new Tanks in time they can make choices which suits them best.

Rotation

The Pull
First of all before the pull start by casting Divine Plea and Sacred Shield. The pull the boss with Hand of Reckoning and Avenger's Shield after you position yourself you should consider using 696 Rotation.

696 Rotation

This is basicly using your cooldowns with 6 seconds CD and 9 seconds CD.

The abilities with 6 second cooldown are Shield of Righteousness and Hammer of the Righteous. So the ration should be something like this:

The abilities with 9 second cooldown are Holy Shield, Consecration, and Judgement. Holy Shield actualy haves 8 Sec CD but it haves 10 Sec duration and Consecration haves 8 sec CD but due to the GCD triggered by the abilites (1,5 sec) and thus making it an avaiable for aprox every 9 secs in most cases. So when we include the final Rotation should be:

ShR - HS - HotR - Conc - ShR - Judge - HotR - HS - ShR ...

For this rotation some ppl prefer to cast Judgement before Concentration and its not wrong its just personal preferences.

Also this roration locks most of your spell bacause everytime a CDs are over when you need them to continue your rotation. Avenger's Shield should also be used on CD for its Utility and you should change in the rotation for a Conc or a Judge.

Here is a Video that shows exactly how the 696 Rotation works -> Youtube

Multi Target Tanking Rotation

The start is the same as the 696 rotation one but for this I start with Conc then HotR to catch the aggro and prevent the mobs from jumping on the healers. So the rotation should be something like this:

This is again more like 696 rotation but as mentioned above you get crucial start aggro and you dont allow trashes to jump on your healer or another Melee DPS that uses abilities that hit aditional targets (Heart Strike, Whirlwind, Divine Storm etc.).

As I said earlier Tanking is an Art and when it comes to rotation you can use your abilities the way it suits you better but aways try to maximize your potential.

Seals and Aura

For Aura the choice is clear your should aways use Devotion Aura caise it gives you DMG Mitigation.

Seal of Vengeance/Seal of Corruption - This is your main tanking seal and you should aways use it, nothing more to say about it.Seal of Command - This seal is mainly used in Multi Target Tanking since most of your abilities are considered Single Target and thus procing its secondary effect.Seal of Wisdom - This is the seal of choice when your doing Heroics and you lack mana also this is the Leveling seal you should use since there you dont recieve much of a Healing.Seal of Light - I personaly use this seal when I'm leveling and when I gather alot of mobs because I need the healing from this one and I get the needed mana from BoS.Seal of Righteousness - This seal is basicly used in low level tanking just before you get SoV then its totaly replaced by it.

Glyph

Must Have Glyphs

Glyph of Divine Plea - This glyph is a must have glyph for all tanks and its quite self - explanationary. When Divine Plea is active (and thats all the time due to Guarded by the Light) you gain 3 % DR.

Glyph of Seal of Vengeance - This is another glyph you must have cause Expertise is quite hard to get as a tank and this gives you a total of 10 and since Expertise is kinda mitigation stats (look above for Expertise Rating and Parry) this makes it a Must.

Situational Glyphs

Glyph of Righteous Defense - We all know that a missed taunt means someone will most likely die and thus making this glyph a very valuable choice. Although Pally haves 2 Taunt there are cases that you have to taunt more than one target and thus this Glyph is rather Situational.

Glyph of Salvation - This is another Situational Glyph bacause this one makes you loose alot of Threat but at it gives you 20 % DR on a 2 Min CD. Use this glyph carefully because most of the fights you need to hold hell of alot aggro and for there this is just not usefull at all. Note: Dont use this glyph if you have Aggro problems.

Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous - This Glyph is your best choice for Trash Tanking and AoE Tanking but its Situational cause if your an MT it makes it quite unneeded since that extra bounce is not going to be puted in use.

Glyph of Avenger's Shield - This is your best choice if you are the MT of your Guild and thus your not tanking that many mobs most of the time. Usualy I prefer using this Glyph since most of the time the hiting of 3 Mobs is enought and there isnt that big need for Glyph of HotR.

Rejected Glyphs

Glyph of Spiritual Attunement - This is rejected bacause if you happen to need mana then thats most likely your quite well geared and you are doing heroics. And simple for there you can change SoV for SoW to keep your mana needs.

Glyph of Judgement - Your judgement dont hit hard at all the only usage for them is to keep their effects on the target and not for extra Threat.

Glyph of Shield of Righteousness - No ShR haves low enought Mana cost so no need to lower it further remember that you have a Blue Rage bar and if you dont have mana on a Raid then thats most like that the Healers are dead and your wiping.

Glyph of Exorcism - This is a Glyph for Retri pally you dont use Exorcism in your rotations so this makes this glyph unneeded.

Skinning, Herbalism and Tailoring are all crap for tanks so just forget about them. Engeneering is also quite crap for Tank but it more usefull that those listed above.

Blacksmithing - Gives you 2 extra slots for your Hands and Wrist. You gain 60 Stam, 40 Dodge Rating , 40 Def Rating or you can gem with whatever combination you want thus meaning this is the most flexible proffesion for you. Not to mention that you can craft some nice BoE epics yourself when you level.

Red Sockets:Regal DreadstoneDefender's Dreadstone
Choose which ever stat you need more. I have also excluded the Pure Dodge and Parry ones since you need alot of stam. If you however dont need Dodge or Parry stack Stamina

Yellow Sockets:Thick King's Amber is the only option and fill them only when you lack Def Rating

My advice is to get a Nightmare Tear and put it in a Red or Yellow socket that yields the most stamina to active your meta gem(if you decide to use the BV Meta pick one of the Red Socket Gems listed Above) the rest of your sockets fill with Solid Majestic Zircon

Both of these foods give you 40 Stam the real choice is if you have a very low Expertise take Wormsteak either take the Filet since it gives you more threat.

I know that the guide become too long but after all the point of making a guide is for new players to understand better a given class(spec) mechanics. If you have some other questions feel free to ask them here, PM me or whisper me ingame. Hopefully this will help some of the Tanking Pallys on Molten WoW.

1st of all the only thing from the whole manual there is the FAQ Section and the formation of the Guide cause its quite easier that way than to write it straing down with no bigger topics to quicly find something you need.

If your reffering for the Rotation cause the rest isn't even mentioned here, well every single experienced Prot pally would explain it exactly the same way maybe most of them wount use abreviation or some other signs but simply every pally would do it exactly the same way and as for the spell locking during the way I have just found out that its also writen there. But if you ever played a Tankadin you should know it yourself.

Just to make it clear all the Combat Ratings part was done by mostly using Windows Calculator and wowwiki for the exact rating per a percent ratio or in other words simple maths and some reading about the Diminishing returns.

EDIT: Oh for the Title -> 100 % guilty the first thing that came in my mind was "A Tankadin's Guide" but seriosly that sounds lame. So yes the Title of the topic was kinda from there blame me if you wish

use http://talent.mmo-champion.com to link your specs , you will see that you can choose for what patch you can use the talent calculator. Choose 3.3.5 and will work perfect.
Right side , down page ( 3.3.5 has Live word next to it. )

im having agro problem in multi and sigle mobs, even when i am doing the rotation as it's writen here, wat must the the problem wit me, mdps usualy get agro, my build is 0/61/10, no enchantment and no glyphs

use http://talent.mmo-champion.com to link your specs , you will see that you can choose for what patch you can use the talent calculator. Choose 3.3.5 and will work perfect.

Builds are updated.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ngaia

im having agro problem in multi and sigle mobs, even when i am doing the rotation as it's writen here, wat must the the problem wit me, mdps usualy get agro, my build is 0/61/10, no enchantment and no glyphs

Atm Paladin's TPS is the most f*cked up among all classes. No matter what warriors say its not normal for a 9k DPS Pally to have 7-9k TPS while a 5k DPS warrior to have 10-12k TPS.

Aditionaly by seeing the numbers for your build you could try getting deeper in the Retribution tree for an ever further TPS Increasement.
You should also consider buying Glyphs and getting the Armsman Enchant since thats the only enchants that actualy gives you TPS unless you decide to take DPS Enchants.

Nice job Wald. Good to hear a nice tank guide. I personally wouldn't put 2/2 in Vindication and would switch that to 2/5 Conviction for extra aggro and crit and other goodies. Nice guide! Agree 99%

Thank you. And yes atm for Molten Vindication and all those type of effects are not working so that is pretty useless but personaly that doesn't have that much impact towards your performance cause here we are talking about ~10-30 TPS Increase from those 2 % Extra Crit vs the ability to decrease the AP of Hostile Players.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quidsz1994

Really good guide, but I have a question, I have a protection pala level 41 and on my items i should just have stamina and strenght, right? Or something else?

Pretty much your main stat for leveling is Stamina and after that get either Str or Agility.